How can there be a hell?

Question

I hear if you don't worship God or don't ask forgiveness of sins, you go to hell for all eternity. Two problems:
1. If He is all-knowing, then He knows when you are born if you are going to Hell. Why would he allow you to come into this world if He truly loves you if He already knows that you will burn for all eternity?
2. Even the most maniacal maniac will be clear of what he wants--ie. worship me or suffer. If I can go to hell for simply not worshipping God, why wouldn't He make it clear from the beginning. Why would He give no firm proof of His existence only to be surprised at the end of your life with--You should have worshipped me--now burn for all eternity! If He wants me to worship Him so badly, why not just come out and say it unambigously?

I am having a crisis of faith--not trying to insult. Please help. Intelligent answers only.

Answer 1

1. He's evil or he doesn't exist
2. He's evil or he doesn't exist

I'm going with "he doesn't exist".

See, any excuse a Christians can give for why God allows evil (or Hell) is a poor argument. Why? Because they always forget that God would be omnipotent. He doesn't need to allow evil to get exactly what he wants. He doesn't need tools. If he wants free will with no evil, he can have it. If he wants people to know things, he can implant it in their brain without tesching them by hurting others. He can arrange ANY set of circumstances he wants and does not NEED evil. If he exists and evil exists, then he is evil. The bible clearly shows him as evil. Fortunately he does not exist.

Answer 2

1. Why would he let anyone exist if he knew that at some point they would suffer? You probably aren't as bothered by that question, so why is it different when talking about hell? Besides, God probably has a reason for it, we can't see everything from this perspective, we don't see the entire effects of everything that happened or ever will happen but God does.





2. He DOES make it clear, in fact he influances many people toward him, and became a man and walked on water and once I think he also made it rain food, and we still reject him. We just resist him so much.

If someone really searches for God with their whole heart, an open mind, no bias, and looks at all the evidence, that person will become a Christian


By the way, you seem to misunderstand a couple things:

For one, all who do not accept Jesus go to Hell, it's not just atheists that go there, Muslims and Hindus as well.

Also, Hell is the 2nd death, you don't suffer forever, you burn in the fires of hell and eventually you just die there and stop existing, I have Bible verses to prove it, email me if you want to know about anything I've said.

Answer 3

Perhaps this description of heaven will shed some light for you.

Heaven is a fiery place, because God's love is like an all consuming fire. The difference between heaven and hell is not the location, it's us. The person in heaven is like a mirror, perfectly clean, that reflects God's love when it hits them. The person in purgatory is a mirror, but has some imperfections or dark spots that need to be fixed. When the fire hits those spots it burns, but eventually they are purified. For those in hell, they have no reflective surface and are therefore consumed by God's love in flame. There are several passages in the bible that describe God's love as fire.

The other point to remember is that this life we live and salvation are not black and white. That's the mistake fundies make. God put in all of us a desire to know Him. As long as you follow that desire, you will be okay, even if it's not the most efficient way.

Also, when it comes to Hell, it is not God who decides it's us. You might say that no one in their right mind would choose hell, but I would say there are people who choose to live in hell on earth.

Answer 4

You are not sticking closely enough wih the manual, therefore the confusion. What you are saying is actualy somewhat of an oversimplification. The truth is, all of mankind was created in Adam, because of God's great love for us. He made us to be just like Him (in His image and likeness). But after Adam and Eve's rebellion against Him in the garden, we were left with the one option of suffering the consequences for the decision we made ("we" being all of mankind which was in Adam and Eve at that time - they made the decision for all of us). We were all seperated from God for all eternity from that time forward. The only solution that God could provide for us (rather than damning the entire of mankind) is to send us a rescuer. Jesus Christ the Son of God came to make us right with the Father. He did the only thing that could be done to make us right again with God. Now we either choose to receive this free gift from God, or we choose to keep things the way they have been since the garden. To choose the latter would mean being seperated from God forever in hell.

Answer 5

You are right, God does know who will accept Him and who won't....Question is do you?...You still, right now at this very moment have the choice and it is up to YOU to make it...God already knows if YOU will accept His offer of forgiveness and turn from your sinful ways...Do you know absolutely that you won't ever accept it?...Who knows, you might live your whole life and not accept it until right before your last breath in which case He will still save you from an eternal hell....Trouble is, if you wait for that next to last breath your count might be off by one and it's too late...Like trying to capture the last second before you fall asleep, it's not easy...

Your question of why He doesn't prove to you His existence is irrelevant. Who are you that God, the creator of the universe has to 'prove' anything to you?...The fact that you are even asking these questions suggests that you already believe in Him, you just don't want to face the truth.

It's really easy, just tell Him that you believe His son Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, and that He has risen and sits at the right hand of His Father. Ask Him to forgive you and give Him your heart...And YOU too "will be saved"

Answer 6

This is certainly a mystery, in a sense... why there is Hell. But it can be explained from a logical or even philosophical viewpoint, there has to be hell if there is heaven--just the way there has to be bad if there is good, or there has to be dark if there is light, etc. So if we suppose that Hell has to exist, then your question of why there is Hell, related to the God of the Bible, needs to be answered in light of how the Bible discusses good, evil, and God himself. On the surface, it seems a paradox, that a good God would send people to Hell. But first of all, the Bible explains that because of sin, all people have a skewed viewpoint... so that we might not see something as 'good' that God sees as being good. God's thoughts and ways are higher than our thoughts and ways. Secondly, if God is indeed good, then he really has to do good things for people who do what he approves of--otherwise, he wouldn't be good. But if God does good things for people who obey him, then logically, he must do bad things to people who disobey... because if God did good things for bad people who disobey him, then he wouldn't be 'good'.
Apart from this philosophical / logical approach, the book of Romans explains that God has indeed revealed himself to all people-- read especially Romans 1. So all people do have some knowledge of God, even from nature, and therefore if they reject God, it's a conscious choice.
The Bible says God is perfectly just: He won't send a person to Hell who doesn't deserve it. God is perfectly holy: He cannot tolerate any kind of sin. God is love: He made a way for people to escape sin and Hell by trusting in His Son, Jesus.
Yes, some of this is a mystery. But that's where faith comes in... because God seeks people who worship Him by faith. Don't worry about having a crisis of faith; worry instead about putting your faith, however weak or frail it may be, in the wrong god!!!!!!!!!

Answer 7

1. He is all knowing, but when you want to change, He helps.
Even if there is eternity in hell, He can take you out there, when you turn your face to Him.
2. He doesn't want to be worshiped. Our worship tendency is natural in human beings. Now we worship different persons and objects, because is innate in most deep feelings of the soul. When He ask for worship, is just to bring us to our natural happy constitution, but after worship Him, comes friendship and loving exchanges between you and Him, and that is your natural life.
I hope this help, thank you.

Answer 8

Don't believe everything you hear. Especially not from fundamentalists.

Hell as a place, with the fire and the brimstone and the pitchforks and the devils who all vaguely look like Ben Afleck -- that hell is a myth. You're right. It doesn't exist.

Hell is not a place. It is a state of existence. It is the fact of existing apart from God's love.

The idea that God is all-knowing is a superstition that runs deep in fundamentalism. To say God doesn't know who is going to heaven or hell the minute they are born doesn't diminish God's power -- it just says that the future isn't written in stone. We create the future every moment along with God through our actions, and God doesn't control our actions. So when little babies are born, there is no way of knowing whether or not they will be in hell because it hasn't happened yet.

You don't go to hell for not worshipping God, either. The worship is a side-effect of the love you have for God and the understanding of how intensly God loves you. If you don't love God or understand His love for you, then of course you might not worship Him. But then you are separating yourself from Him and placing yourself in a state of hell -- none of God's doing.

God does give us firm proof of His existence, it's just that a lot of us aren't looking in the right places. For one thing, whatever image you have in your head of God -- God is infintiely bigger. So the ways God shows Himself to us are always not what we expect. NOt because God is trying to be coy or tricky -- but because His ways are so much ... higher or more exalted than we can understand. God is very unambiguous, but he doesn't force anything on anybody. If you find no proof of God's existence in the world around you or in your heart, I would suggest you look at some things that might be blocking your spiritual sight: pride is a common reason. So is laziness.

I'm not saying you're prideful or lazy, but if you want to experience unabiguous proof of God, these are some of the things that might -- might -- be blocking you.

I hope I didn't insult. I know well what it means to have spiritual crises -- sometimes I think my whole walk with God has been one spiritual crisis after another.

Good luck. Come back on Y!A later and let us all know what is going on with you.

Answer 9

He knows these things because He Himself is outside of time. All the things you mention are reality from HIS perspective. For us to contemplate these things will only confuse us, because we are finite beings with finite understanding who live in time.

For us, God says that we have a choice to make. It's our choice to make, not His or anyone else's. Of course God knows what choice we will make just like He knows what color the next traffic light will be when you come to it. But that's His perspective and His domain. Ours is that we have a choice to make, and He will respect that choice no matter what it is. The terrifying thing is that God will allow us to make our choices without interference from Him. The fact that He, in His position, knows these choices doesn't make it any less our free will.

The fact is that all creation would worship Him if it wasn't fallen. The creation is against its creator because it's twisted.
The fact that creation exists is proof that God exists. If you want to believe that, in the beginning, there was nothing, and then it exploded, and somehow after mixing in the magical ingredient of "billions of years" that life somehow spontaneously came into existence, there's the issue you want to go after as far as not seeing proof. Life coming from inanimate material? Where's the proof?

And speaking of proof, since that's so important to you, where's the proof that God does NOT exist?

Answer 10

First, you have to remember that faith is very much based on people's opinions. Person A might say, "If you don't go to church you'll burn", while Person B might say, "So long as you accept God's love you will go to heaven." The key is to find what feels right to you. In my opinion, so long as you HAVE belief in God and you try to do right by others, you stand a pretty good chance of getting to Heaven, even if all your opinions are 100% correct. That is the gift of God's unconditional love. He loves you no matter what, and is willing to accept your best try if you gave it your all, even if you aren't perfect (I, for one, speed and cheat on my taxes, but I'm pretty sure God forgives me when I really am sorry for it afterwards :D).
On the foundation that this is just what works for me:
1. Yes, God is all-knowing. However, one of the biggest gifts He gave to mankind (that the angels, btw, did NOT get) is FREE WILL. He gives you the gift of life, and you have the freedom to do with it what you will. It's kind of like living in America. Yes, you have the freedom to do bad things, but you will get caught, and you will get punished. So, He allows you to choose to believe or not believe, and hopes with all His might you will prove Him fallible and get into Heaven anyway. Humanity just doesn't, unfortunately. Because He created your soul, you have the right to live. Because HE gave you Free Will, you have the right to burn. He doesn't enjoy it, but those are His rules. Even God is subject to them.

2. God gives good reason for lack of proof in the Bible. True belief is believing without seeing. Once you KNOW, once you've SEEN it, that's not belief, that's knowledge. There is a difference. There is unconditional love in belief, and that's what He's all about. There is conditional love in knowledge, which is not nearly as powerful or genuine. PLUS, if you really get into it and look around you, you can find proof. You just have to stop picking it apart and saying "is this real" and take a leap that it is. Sadly, you can also get hoodwinked by doing this, so I just suggest that you find what feels right to you and accept it.

Trust your heart. Don't lie to yourself, and you will believe in your own answers.

Answer 11

Many things are not known. However this much is known, in the beginning we were spirits and God gave us a plan to receive a body and grow learn and become more like him. In this plan it was known not all would be able to make it back to God. Jesus endorsed this plan and God was to have all the glory and he was to be our savior. Satan however had another plan, one in which no one would lose their right to be with God however he was to get all the Glory not God. One third or all the spirits wanted Satan's plan and a spiritual war then ensued. Satan and his third of the spirits were cast out of heaven. God and Jesus have prepared a place for them. This place will not have the Glory of God and thus will never be as good as heaven and living with the father. God wants to share his Glory with all who make it back to him. Now compare that to Satan's plan and you soon see that God isn't looking for more Glory but wants us as his children. Satan wants slaves. There for it is fitting that it be compared to a eternal fire that can never be quenched.